Observations

Hello all. This post will consist largely of several unrelated observations, and maybe a few photos as well.

1) Anti-Semitism in Russia.

I hear it all the time in casual speech. At Yalchik, someone called me a "Yevrey" ("Jew") for not sharing my bread, probably not knowing that I really am Jewish, half anyway. (He then retracted this assertion of Jewishness when I gave him some bread.) Yesterday I was playing chess and I moved my pieces to evade a checkmate. "Ah," said my friend Seryozha, "a Jewish move! Sly," he explained when I looked at him funny.

I don't get it. Maybe it's just a way of speaking, the way some Americans say, "That's gay!" to mean "That's bad!" even if they're not particularly homophobic. Or maybe it's deeper than that; maybe the Russians who say these things really do think Jews are stingy and sly. Whenever I confront people about it, they totally evade the question, with non-sequitors such as "Jesus was Jewish!" or "I want to learn Hebrew." They don't even try to explain it or provide a context. It's really irritating.

2) The Disco.

Last night we went to the disco as part of the Day of the First Years celebrations. It was my first club experience, and in many ways had all the seeming of an American club: DJs, strobe lights, bouncers, everyone dressed to kill. The party went until 3 in the morning, and then a lot of the first years went elsewhere to party some more. Crazy. It was very surreal, very very far from home. Probably the highlight of my evening was when they played a techno remix of the Muppets theme song: "Manamana. Doo doooo doo doo doo!" True story.

Today in class we were talking about American clubs vs. Russian discos, and I explained how we card in America. My teacher was incredulous. "You have to show your documents at the club?!" she exclaimed. I laughed so hard; in Russia you have to show your documents everywhere but the club: at the university, at camp, at the gym, whenever the police ask you for them. And not just passports but superfluous, ridiculous documents. The bureaucracy! The absurdity! I would have gone on a rant if I'd had the right vocabulary. I guess I was really tired. The culture shock hit me like a brick wall this week.

Left: Tatar dance/comedy skit. Right: real live communists on Bauman street!